Outside Home Improvement

Last night I had a few people over for a shindig (not a party). We had a great time hanging out under a lit tent, playing drinking games and enjoying each others company. I set my tent up in the yard part of the backyard (the part with grass versus the patio). We have a nice bricked patio area, but it was overrun with weeds. I didn't have enough time to pull them all up. Today, I remedied the backyard situation. I also made my own weed solution to make sure that the weeds didn't come back.

Recipe:

4 parts Water
1 part dish washing soap
(not the dishwasher kind)
salt

I used an old spay bottle to spray down the patio once I was finished with my weeding. You want to make sure to spray the area that you want dead. This solution will kill the soil, so you don't want to use it in a yard. It will kill your grass in addition to the weeds.


The yard before picture.

The after picture.

Hey! I Can Do That!

I find myself saying this a lot in stores. Whenever I see something cute and craftsy, I want to take a shot at it. Today, I actually had the time to do that.

I saw this t-shirt in Ann Taylor Loft yesterday while shopping with Annie. I really liked it, but I just cannot bring myself to pay $40 for a t-shirt, no matter how cute.
They had it in a lot of colors, this is the white one.

I can bring myself to re-purpose a shirt that I haven't worn in years. This is the shirt I used, it's about 8 years old, from Old Navy.

I started by cutting these pieces out. I used white toole. You can use any color you want. I used toole because that's what they used at Ann Taylor, but you can really used any kind of thin fabric you want. You want to stay away from heavy fabrics as they won't fall correctly.

I cut out about 30 of these. I free hand drew the flower outline on the toole with a color pencil.

I also recommend you have a good pair of fabric scissors. If you don't have fabric scissors it will make the cutting a lot harder. You may want to cut more of less flowers out depending on how full you want your shirt to be. If you need a flower template just print out this page and cut out my picture... Ta-Da! template done.

Here is my finished shirt! I'm excited to wear it out!

Here is a close up of the flower ruffles. You don't have to be precise at all, I wasn't. The shirt should show that you had a hand in making it. I placed my flowers 3 cut outs to a bunch to make one "flower". For the part that trails off, I just used less cut outs.

Voila! I knew I could do that!

Lights Out!

Or light's on. Your choice.
As you all know by now I have completely redone my bathroom. There was a little bit of a stand out situation though... my light switch. It was old and yellowing. I decided I needed something fun and new. I am sure you have all seen lots of decorative light switches at Home Depot, Target, etc. However, instead of buying something new, I decided to reuse the old. With a little paint, I think it looks better than ever.

This is the old light switch. Pretty standard, not at all attractive....

I tried a couple of different types of paint on the switch before settling on paint pens. I found that latex paint peeled right off, and acrylic would have needed about 50 coats before it covered the yellowing of the old light switch. Paint pens are a great investment if you don't own them. They can be a little pricey, but they last awhile. I've had mine since college (yay sorority life!).

A pack of 5 pens will run you about $15.

Also note that's I'm working on an old mat, it's important when working with paint to have a clear surface that you don't mind getting paint on.

Here is the finished product! I kept it really simple with polka dots for this one, but you can decorate yours however you like. It's a great personal touch for any room!

Refurbished Picture Frames

I have been toying with the idea of starting a second blog dedicated to crafts. (My first blog is www.im26nowwhat.blogspot.com). I have lots of ideas, that I would love to get down and share with everyone. I tend to not have enough time to get these ideas actualized but whilst I'm on my furlough I have decided to execute some of my master plans.

Today's entry is a simple one. I redecorated my bathroom in my new house. I didn't have a lot of money to spend so I decided to refurbish some frames I already had.

I picked up these frames at IKEA. They came in a package 5 for $1. That's right, I picked up all four of these for only $1!

First you need a place to work. I was working in the basement, but I decided to put down on old mat to work on.

I painted all four frames white. I knew these were going in a bathroom, so I decided not to put pictures in the frames. I think it's kind of weird to have pictures of your friends whilst using the facilities. Instead I used old postcards. They give a lot of color and are always interesting to look at.

These are the frames in their natural state. They were a light colored wood.

The picture frames after a few coats of paint. A good tip for painting small objects is to paint one direction for the first coat, and then the opposite direction for the second coat. (For example paint vertically, then horizontally). This ensures that there are no "bald" spots in the coats.

Here are the frames with the postcards in them. I grew impatient so I used a hair dryer to quicken the drying process.

Here is the finished product all lined up in my bathroom!